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More Than A 100 Dogs, Exotic Birds Taken From Montgomery Co. Home

(MONTGOMERY CO.) - More than 100 dogs and exotic birds are getting extra care after being discovered in a Montgomery County home.

Cowering in a corner at Montgomery County's Animal Welfare League, several shelties didn't know what to make of their surroundings.

"They're not used to human interaction," said animal control officer Dustin Minix.

That's because, according to Minix, the dogs had never been outside of the rural Montgomery County home where they were found recently.

"Some of them have never seen daylight," explained Minix.

The dogs were just some of the 37 dogs animal control officers and the health department found in the home after animal control got a call about one of the dogs, found dead in the street.

"Whenever I got to the front door, trying to make contact with the owner, to see if they were there, I could smell the inside, outside and I knew it was bad," recalled Minix.

Just how bad, though, animal control could never have imagined until they got inside the home.

Not only were there dozens of dogs locked in kennels in their own waste, animal control and the Montgomery County Health Department discovered more than 100 exotic birds locked in cages in the same condition.

The scene was so bad, the county's health department was called in and had to wear haz mat suits just to get the animals out.

The dogs and birds are being housed at the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County, which has quadrupled the shelter's number of animals.

An exotic bird sanctuary has already offered to take the birds.

National Sheltie Rescue has stepped up to help find foster homes for the dogs until they can find long-term homes.

Animal control officers said they are finishing up their investigation and will give their findings to the prosecutor's office, which will decide if charges will be filed against the animals' owner.